Yes

It is a miracle that most British people aren’t miserable, violent zombies walking around punching everyone they meet.

Because, according to new research, children who are smacked by their parents are more likely to suffer mental health issues and anti-social behaviour problems later on as adults.

And that means pretty much everyone from my generation – and yours. The researchers even claim that children who are smacked have “lower cognitive ability” than those who aren’t. So, in summary, smacking kids makes them unhappy, angry, thick and violent.

Which is strange, since some 80%of the children on this planet, according to Unicef, are routinely hit by their parents and most of them nevertheless seem to turn out as functioning, happy adults.

Let’s face it, there is absolutely no reason why the odd slap on the back of the legs should cause any long term damage to a child.

Fewer children are hit by their parents now in western countries like Britain than in years gone by, yet we’re constantly being told that children today are unhappier than ever. Maybe the odd clip round the ear wasn’t so bad after all.

I come from a generation where it was quite routine for parents to slap their children, even in public, and for no one to blink an eye.

I myself was smacked occasionally as a child – on the backside, or on the hand - and, to be honest, I probably deserved it every time.

As a parent myself now, I have never hit my own child and I hope that I never will. But I know plenty of loving mums and dads who have felt the need and I wholeheartedly reserve the right to do so if I ever judge it to be necessary too.

This research makes no distinction between the people who are mentally and emotionally scarred from childhoods spent being beaten by their parents and those who got the odd slap for being naughty, many of whom would say it probably did them good.

Children know the difference between an unloving bullying parent who dishes out physical abuse and a loving parent who is trying their best in difficult circumstances and sometimes gives them a well-intentioned smack.

What a shame the researchers don’t.

No

So now we have the most definitive study yet – involving five decades of research and 160,000 children – concluding that smacking is a bad idea.

Of course it flippin’ well is. Ask any parent. It is wrong on every conceivable level.

As well as physical violence against children being impossible to justify – even if it is parents dishing it out – it’s a no-brainer that stopping kids (anyone!) misbehaving by hitting them just doesn’t work.

Imagine in any other sphere of life threatening somebody else with a punch if they didn’t do what you’d said. You would soon find yourself arrested by the police.

Thirteen negative outcomes have been proven by this study to be caused by smacking, from lower cognitive ability and self-esteem to mental health problems in adulthood.

Again, it’s a shame we needed a study to prove this. Of course it’s going to fry a child’s brain for the person who’s supposed to care more about them than anyone else on the planet to become physically violent towards them.

Be it a tap on the hand or lashings with a belt, smacking morphs the most fundamentally nurturing relationship into one of animalistic brutishness – “I’m bigger than you and you’ve annoyed me so I’m going to use my greater physical strength to hurt you.”

What’s more, the study also proved that the negative effects of smacking aren’t even outweighed by an improvement in behaviour: there was no improvement shown with the use of physical violence.

And be in no doubt it is physical violence. While the American study itself refers rather coyly to spanking, call it what you will - spanking, smacking, slapping - it makes no difference: hitting children is an act of violence and as a modern society that declares itself a champion of children, we must have zero tolerance for it.

That a country which spends millions of pounds each year on child welfare and protection, that boasts the NSPCC and Childline among its most worthy of charities, still condones parents hurting their own children, as long as it doesn’t cause bruising or bleeding, is shameful. Yes, smacking still isn’t illegal in the UK.

Now that we have the evidence let’s finally draw a line under this once and for all: smacking children is wrong and should be outlawed.

Picture posed by models (Image: Getty)

1. One of the most definitive studies into the effects of smacking children has found it makes their behaviour worse and leaves them with long term psychological damage.

2. Scientists looked at 50 years of research involving 160,000 children and concluded: “Smacking doesn’t teach children anything other than to fear their parents.”

3. According to the United Nations, which has called for a ban on the practice, 80% of children are smacked.

4. In the UK, it is legal to smack a child provided that no physical marks are left, such as bruising or bleeding, however in much of the rest of Europe it is illegal.

5. Professors Elizabeth Gershoff, from the University of Texas at Austin and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, at the University of Michigan led the research published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

6. They discovered that it was no use as a method of discipline. “It is not making children better behaved; there is no relationship in the short term at all.”

7. It was counter productive in the long-term. “Parents want their children not to be aggressive in the future. We found the more you smack the more aggressive they become.”